Idaho seeks ‘primacy’

• Idaho is launching an eight-year process to get authorization from the EPA to issue wastewater permits in the state. Idaho must pass laws, set fees and penalties, and show that it has the funding, staffing and capability to operate the program to get the federal agency to hand over the …

Related stories

• Idaho is launching an eight-year process to get authorization from the EPA to issue wastewater permits in the state. Idaho must pass laws, set fees and penalties, and show that it has the funding, staffing and capability to operate the program to get the federal agency to hand over the authority.

• Only four states currently have the EPA running their wastewater permitting programs: Idaho, Massachusetts, New Mexico and New Hampshire.

• By the end of the eight-year process, the new state program will cost up to $3 million a year and require 25 new workers at the state Department of Environmental Quality.